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HRD IN CONSULTANCY FIRMS
( Published in the HRD Newsletter, Jan.-March 1995 )
The structure of a consultancy firm is tremendously fluid in which power constantly shifts. Coordination and control are by mutual adjustment through information, communication,and interaction of competent experts. Ideally, all consulting firms would like to operate as adhocracies, the most difficult of the five configurations (Mintzberg) to describe because it is both complex and non-standardized .
In such an organization, the HRD systems are ought to be contextual and different even from those practiced in similar firms. A few HRD systems such as Recruitment and Career Planning, Training and Development, Performance Assessment and Development and Management of Motivation can be implemented to foster a developmental culture in Management Consultancy firms.
Recruitment and Career planning in consultancy firms is a challenging task, especially because of the ill-defined quantity and quality of manpower requirements. There is no "critical mass"which can be predicted or can be reached at without some experimentation. Similarly, since the key success factors of the jobs are difficult to define, the quality requirement is also ambiguous.
In a project-based company every project is unique. Hence, only a broad framework of the job requirement can be made. This framework should take into account the present and future operations of the firm. Management consultancy firms can target individuals, groups, organizations or societies at large. At the individual and group level, assignments in the areas of skill development, counselling, designing welfare schemes etc. may be expected. At the organization level, it could be system and procedure studies, designing organisation structures, developing business strategies and so on. At the society level, consultants may be called for helping in development planning or suggesting policy initiatives of the government.
So, the recruiters should take into account the areas of present operation and the shape it is going to take in the future. The strategy of recruiting graduates/post- graduates directly from the campuses and grooming them to become consultants may work only if the consulting firm is not focused and the consultants are not expected to develop expertise in a specific area. If the company is focused and wants consultants to be experts in the firm's areas of operation, then it is wise to recruit successful managers in these areas. This is necessary because they can comprehend the magnitude of the problem, and recommend / implement more effective and corrective measures. This saves time and cost for the company. Today, more and more consulting firms are focusing their businesses in certain key sectors / functions. A typical career plan for consultants in a focused firm would be :
- Experience in problem situation :developing expertise in key areas at junior level,
- Experience in problem solving : reinforcing expertise at middle level,
- Experience in problem avoidance : strategy planning and man-management at senior level.
Training and development
As a starting point for the training needs, an analysis of career profiles of the consultants is essential. It is also important to keep in mind the firm's long term objectives. Keeping these objectives in view, broadly the following strategies can be adopted:
- Develop expertise in those strategic areas, where the consultants have not developed expertise when firm is focused and the consultant is a generalist.
- Reinforce and update knowledge and skills in the areas of focus of the firm when the firm is focused and the consultant is an expert.
- Provide the consultants exposure to areas where they do not have expertise in a non focused firm with expert consultant. Here, the long-term objectives of the consulting firm is to operate in a wide range of sections/functions.
- Expose the consultants to all upcoming sectors/functions in a non-focused firm with generalist consultant .
Three key areas which every consultant should be well conversant with are knowledge and skills related to Man-management, Business development, and Quality assurance.
At the post-training stage, designing an evaluation technique that gives the true indication of the effectiveness of the training and development programme is vital. At this stage Kitpatrick's model [ Reaction (Trainees satisfaction), Learning (techniques / skills / attitudes), Behaviour (change in trainees behaviour which improves performance), Results (achievement of desired goals of the training programme) ] may be useful. Change in behaviour as well as change in on-the-job performance are difficult to find in a consultancy firm. These can be measured with some success if the consultant takes up an assignment for which the knowledge / skills acquired in the training programme are of use. The consultant should be able to use the knowledge / skills acquired, as soon as possible, in an assignment. However, assignments in consulting firms are decided by market forces and the focus areas of the firm.
Instead of measuring behavioral change and extent of goal achievement, evaluation should be done to find out how far the trainee is capable of customizing the knowledge and skills he / she acquires. The logic is that the training programme should give enough confidence and capability to the trainee to experiment with the skills and to innovate. Therefore,a slight variation of Kitpatrick's model : [ Reaction (Trainees satisfaction), Learning (KSA understood and absorbed), Cusomization (Capability to experiment and innovate) ] will be more effective in evaluating the effectiveness of training programmes in a consulting firm.
Performance assessment and development
It is important to foster a healthy relationship in the project teams to increase on-the-job learning. A healthy relationship is also required because effectiveness and efficiency of a team-member depends to a large extent on the members. Therefore, the thrust of the performance assessment and development system should be on assessing teams and not individuals. At the same time, it should also clearly bring out the dynamics in the team and developmental needs of the team-members. The latter is required because in project based organizations, consultants may have to handle multi-functional assignments. The appraisal system should aim at changing group dynamics in a positive way, assessing team's performance based on some quantitative criteria, and bringing out the training and developmental needs of individual members. In a consulting firm peformance appraisal system should not be used as a controlling mechanism. This becomes very important considering the fact that judging individual performances in the absence of clear-cut objectives may lead to a lot of subjectivity. This in turn will lead to frustration and may bring down the performance of the team as a whole.
Managing Motivation
Innovation and Quality Assurance are two key elements in the success of any consulting firm. Therefore, schemes for rewarding innovations be designed and implemented, and organizational recognition be given for high quality performances. Designing innovative compensation packages is another way of keeping the motivation of the consultants high, which shall include profit sharing, incentives for business development etc. The objective of development should be improvement of job performance and improvement of the quality of life in a broad sense. Hence, development with a focus is essential. The challenge to HRD in consulting firms lies in improving efficiency, developing its consultants to match with the dynamic external environment, and retaining them.
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